Thank you!!

-- Chatter -- 

Well, obviously I have taken some time away from the computer. I hurt my hand and couldn't even type properly - so didn't bother. It is healing but is awfully painful sometimes. 

What happened? Well, I've been doing a lot of yoga, spring cleaning and garden chores and noticed my hands were getting awfully sore, almost strained feeling. So I began soaking in hot water, massaging them and using hot packs to ease the discomfort. But I really did it in when I did something small and seemingly insignificant... I buy our organic shampoo/conditioner in bulk bottles, refilling the smaller ones for the shower and because it is so concentrated I add an eighth cup or so of pure water (from our water purifier machine) and shake it up to mix. It was the shaking up to mix thing that did it. Felt it snap actually, something in the hand actually felt like it snapped. So weeks later... I'm finally able to do cleaning (carefully) and typing (gingerly). ugh. 


It allowed me the time for reflexion however. I'd been dealing with some health related issues for some time and watching the remaining parent (Dave's) come closer to end-of-life... so a bit of stress going on. After discussions, I realized just how much stress Dave and I have been constantly under for the last 7 years.  It started with my parent's end-of-life preparations through to their suicide and my dealing with their estate plan; followed by us deciding to live our dream today. So we put our home up for sale, keeping it staged for a year and all that goes with that (garage sales, downsizing, packing). During all of this, Dave's knees had been bothering him at work and so he had to go for one knee surgery before the sale of our home and one surgery after. So we choose a new home, sold the old one, and began the move... dealing with bureaucratic delays and paperwork with Employment Insurance for Dave's medical issues. 

Sadly, at that time, we had to put down an older fur-companion, our dear old Onyx (lab/collie cross), soon adopting another one from the local shelter and taking in a street kitten (homeless)... so this brought many hours of training and vet appointments, etc. 

The home we bought needed a lot done to it so as soon as we moved in, before the boxes were unpacked, we were already calling for quotes and pricing out supplies and digging into the work load. We began by writing everything we noticed down in a binder and later prioritizing the work... which we are still doing, but instead of a binder it is down to one page... whew!

Because of the move we decided to reconstruct our business and came up with Brummet Media Group - new business plan, new marketing plan, new 2-year plan of action. New business = new website. 

Once all that was done, we gradually released new editions of our 6 books as they came out of contracts with publishers (= new content, rewrites, edits, new cover design, new publisher, etc.). That being done, while working on the house and finding the right "day" job for Dave, we embarked on the next manuscript (book #7), but were interrupted by our email getting hacked... so we fixed that... then our vehicle needed work, then our website crashed so we fixed that... then we found out too late (because of the email change) that our website domain lapsed, someone who knew our site was successful scooped up the domain within seconds of it being available (literally) and we lost it. So that crushed us for a while. 

Then we picked up the pieces and arranged to have the new site domain registered and the host notified of the change, and made a list of things we wanted to improve on... and then we stalled again. This time because the last parent that we have in our lives is facing end-of-life. So that meant various family members arriving and leaving for the last few months. Between that and some dental work, vehicle work and health issues... well let's just say we've not been bored. 

Now things are settling down a bit - and we realize just how much all this stress has taken a tole on our health. So now we are dealing with that and trying not to get stressed that we aren't actively in the office running the business every day. 

It has been hard to let go of things, knowing they aren't done and wanting them done... and I MISS writing ! lol - but I'm learning to let go. Our health is more important and the business will be there when we are ready to give it a go. 

In the meantime I hope to return to the blog fairly regularly and have fresh content for you at least once a week - for now my hand is killing me so I'll sign off for now. And... thanks... for everything :)